momagri, movement for a world agricultural organization, is a think tank chaired by Christian Pèes.It brings together, managers from the agricultural world and important people from external perspectives, such as health, development, strategy and defense. Its objective is to promote regulationof agricultural markets by creating new evaluation tools, such as economic models and indicators,and by drawing up proposals for an agricultural and international food policy.

Heading towards a new CAP:
“Work on building influence starts now”

May 4, 2015

As French union and cooperative general meetings and conventions follow one after the other, there seems to be a consensus emerging that goes beyond their traditional opposition: we need a CAP that is adapted to market volatility.

For example, Jean-Christophe Kroll, agricultural economist, expressed himself during the Confédération paysanne (congress of small farmers), deploring the provisions for a CAP which “is full of absurdities”, the first among which is, decoupling. As a reminder, the CAP is the only one that currently spends nearly 60% of its budget on direct payments disconnected from all market consideration.

For Dominique Chargé, President of the FNCL (National Federation of Dairy Cooperatives), without “government intervention in the event of extreme market amplitude”, there is no salvation from volatility. During the FNCL general meeting he presented three approaches to address this, “reactive and effective European indicators, a crisis management system at the European level that applies to all, with intervention tools that are mobile and reactive to adapt to different market situations. And finally, learning from the experiences of other countries”. Among these countries, the US and their agricultural policy (which still has structural imbalances), who got rid of decoupled aid in favour of insurance and countercyclical systems as far back as 2002.

Stéphane Le Foll nicknamed “the obedient pupil” by Jean-Christophe Kroll, has already said he is convinced that decoupling aid was a mistake. But let’s go further and start defining new aid modalities that reinforce the added value of Community spending.

Work on building influence starts now, revealed, quite rightly, Dominique Chargé during the FNCL general meeting. We cannot wait for 2020 to start, because it will be the work and efforts made today that a new, more just and more stable CAP could emerge during the mid-term review of the multiannual financial framework in 2016-17.

Momagri welcomes this growing awareness and the willingness of French agricultural organizations to make the CAP 2020 a priority. Often ostracized as the bad student in the field of influence, France does have the resources and the legitimacy to bring EU Member-States together around a CAP that will serve the EU’s economic and strategic interests.

Through their work, Momagri will support this movement in order to strengthen France’s agricultural ambition.